Wed 6/21:

Thu 6/22- Sun 6/25:

NOTHING! 😦

Clearly I’m going to need to figure out a better way to hold myself accountable!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not much sewing/quilting happened last week either – we had friends visit and I just didn’t feel right spending a lot of time in my sewing room. I did make a decision on the Afternoon Tango project I started and then got a creative block…I made another pull from my stash to fill in the missing strips and forged ahead with the original pattern. Here’s the top all pieced together:

I think adding a little more yellow helped with the overall look. I’m now contemplating adding a single white border to corral all that ‘busi-ness’ and call it done.

I took a detour from quilts and made myself a Travelers Notebook cover…if you’re not familiar with those just Google it, you’ll get an overload of information. As I’ve mentioned before I’m using a Bullet Journal to keep track of my tasks, appointments, notes and ideas and I’m getting ready to move from my first BuJo to my second (a Gold one, wow!). At the same time, I’ve just finished reading David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done” and want to incorporate his productivity method into my BuJo. I quickly realized I don’t want to keep re-writing my lists and I just so happened to have a few small notebooks lying around that would serve me well but I needed something to carry them in…enter the Travelers Notebook cover.

It may be hard to see but there are actually 3 little notebooks inside, they’re all just about the same shade of pink 😉

So, that was all the progress I made last week…let’s hope next week is MUCH more productive!!

First up: As I’ve mentioned before, Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict is hosting Hands2Help again this year and there’s still plenty of time to join in the fun! I’ve had my leaders/enders sitting around for quite some time and they were supposed to get addressed back in February when the APQ UFO Challenge pulled #8 but, ahem…nope. So, I decided to pull them together and use them for the H2H event.

At first I was going to sew them all together for one rather large quilt but Sarah suggested I could make two smaller quilts and double my donation…BRILLIANT! This first picture is when I tried to get them all up on my design wall – ha! I couldn’t even get it all in the pic and I still had two more vertical rows to add to the left.

Once I decided to make two quilts, I divided them up and chose border fabric. This beautiful teal green is left over from a 8 yard purchase from a Craftsy sale – I think it adds a bit of a masculine touch (eh, maybe?). This now measures 61×65 and is ready for quilting.

And for the second quilt I chose a light purple border, this definitely has a more feminine vibe – it also measures 61×65. I’ve got lots of quilting in my future!! LOL

I titled this “Go Your Own Way” after the Fleetwood Mac song and that’s exactly what I did with the design and the FMQ…I stitched whatever I was feeling at the moment!

It’s a mini size quilt measuring 30″ square…no idea what I’ll do with this but it does look kinda good on my dining room table!

Along with all the charity tops that need to be quilted I’ve taken on a friend’s request to quilt a gift she made for her grandson’s college graduation. I’ll share pictures once I get started but I’m a little nervous because we chose a quilting design I’ve never done before…I call it meandering squares…looks kinda like this (not my drawing):

I’ll need to practice on paper and on a practice sandwich before I put needle to quilt!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I strained a muscle in my back earlier this week (ironically while I was exercising!) so that limited my movement for a few days…needless to say, no running again this week 😦 I tried to do a little bit of exercise each day by pulling up a ‘walk at home’ video on YT. I couldn’t do some of the twisting moves but I got through the rest ok…at least I was moving, right?!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Still going strong with my bullet journal (bujo), I start and end my day by reviewing what needs to get done in the morning and in the evening I check off what I completed and make a list for the next day. It’s really keeping me motivated!

As you can see I didn’t get much ‘strength training’ in after straining my back but I was able to keep up with very light cardio 😉 Love how my rainbow is coming together but I gotta do better with the bottom half, lol

Get ready to be over-loaded with pictures of The Doggies!! I put the finishing touches on this quilt last night so I’ll spare you those ‘bad lighting’ pics. I went outside this morning to get better ones in natural light – ha! I really need to hone up on my picture taking skills 😉

Out back on the deck, the colors are a little muted…

On the front porch in full sun…yep, the colors really sing!

Here are in-progress and up-close shots of the quilting…I decided to go with my standard quilting motif – all over meander!

The only thing left to do is run it through the rinse cycle to get the basting spray out and I’m SUPER NERVOUS, worried the backing fabric (Island Batik in Branch Blue) might bleed so I’ll be throwing in about 10 color catchers just to be safe 😉

I worked on a few other things this week, like one of the Bonus blocks from The Honey Pot Bee QAL. I still need to make the bonus Crown block! I’m using all Blueberry Park fabrics for this QAL…my absolute favorites!

While at QuiltCon last month I picked up some free fabric for a mug rug challenge to be entered for more prize giveaways from Marcus Fabrics and Studio 37 Fabrics. I finally pulled that out and made a WINE rug from 4 layer cake squares of beautiful batiks.

[Off topic…speaking of wine, I had my first glass of Pinot Noir while in Savannah and really enjoyed it so now I’m trying different brands to find my favorite (is ‘brands’ the right word when talking about wines?).]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I really love doing a tracker in my bullet journal…it helps me stay focused and when I complete a lot of the tasks it’s just so pretty! For March I used random colors for each habit but for April…

I gave it a little more advanced thought and I’m using a ‘rainbow’ of colors…If I keep up with all my habits this thing is gonna be gorgeous!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No running again this week but I started taking my dog for 20 min walks every day…she needs to lose weight too 😦

I’ve been a little low-key and semi-unproductive this week. I did work on a couple of projects that have been sitting around collecting dust, otherwise not much happening.

The APQ UFO Challenge number for March is 12 and that corresponded to a Cozy Christmas project that has been waiting to be quilted since Christmas. It’s a small project so I tackled that this week; I decided on free-motion twinkle stars (that’s not the official name but that’s what I’m calling it!). It quilted up in one evening and then it took another day to figure out what I wanted to use for binding – I settled on plain red fabric…DONE! And I just love my new labels, makes it look so professional 😉

Next up I’ve started quilting on the MQG Fabric challenge mini/wall quilt. I did straight line quilting in the ‘arrows’ but now I’m stuck on what to do on the rest…grrr! I want to use a more dense design to hopefully allow the arrows to stand out but nothing is coming to me so, now it sits waiting…

That’s all the quilting/sewing I’ve done this week. We had a friend come for an impromptu visit so that distracted me a bit. She left yesterday morning and I used the fair weather to go out on the deck and baste the Doggie quilt. The customer chose a lovely dark blue Island Batik, I think it helps balance all the ‘noise’ on the front. Now to decide on how to quilt this…I’m thinking of ‘organic wavy lines’ in my go-to Aurifil Dove Grey 2610…we’ll see if I stick with that idea once I get it under the needle!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve got my Bullet Journal all setup for April – I took some time this week to review which spreads and layouts I’ve really liked over the last few months and what I wanted to adjust. I made a list of those spreads and the order I wanted them in for April and started building…sqweeee, now I’m all excited to start using them 😉

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As for running, nope. I do want to get back into it – my running buddies have take a little hiatus too so I don’t feel so bad I’ve been doing YouTube cardio videos every morning so at least I’m moving and maybe it won’t be so hard to get back to running…yeah, hopefully!

That’s all for now. What are you working on and how’s it coming along?

I knew I needed to get focused on sewing and quilting since I’d lost so much time being sick pretty much since I returned from QuiltCon (no reflection on that trip!).

I first decided I would get caught up on The Cookbook QAL with Amy Gibson so I pulled my solids and dove right in. I’m happy to say I’m all caught up and ready for the next block – tomorrow!

Block 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11

I also needed to get in gear for the Modern Quilt Guild fabric challenge using Riley Blake Creative Rockstar. I’ve had the fabrics for many weeks and decided I would also use some Confetti solids to make HST…then I spent the last two days playing with a layout. I kept moving them around until I was happy and this is what I landed on…I’m calling it “Go Your Own Way”. It’s a play on the Fleetwood Mac song and most rock stars tend to make their own path. This is a mini/wall size quilt (approx 33″ square), I have the backing all picked out and a rough idea for quilting.

And fresh off the sewing machine today, I FINALLY finished the Cheeky Pumpkin Halloween quilt!! A friend already called first dibs on this when she saw my in-progress shots a few months ago…(wow, can’t believe I started this thing that long ago!). I’m really happy with the quilting…I did a large spider web using black thread and finished off the outside row with an oversized zig-zag.

I have another Halloween quilt in-progress…hopefully I can get that one done before Oct!! LOL

…in other news…

I finished another book this week, The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. Wow, some things seem so obvious after I read about them. This was a short book but it’s packed with valuable information. If you’re struggling at all in your romantic relationship I would HIGHLY recommend this book!

I’m still using my bullet journal and for most of last week I completed the SAVERS. The last two days I’ve slacked off a bit, I just felt like I really needed the extra sleep and then once I was up I kinda felt like I missed the opportunity to do my SAVERS…weird, what can I say! Tomorrow I’m getting right back on track!

I think that’s enough for now…what are you working on – I’d love to hear about it!!

Ugh…!!! I was so pumped after attending QuiltCon all I wanted to do was get home and make all the quilts on my wish list – HA! Well yeah, I know that wasn’t going to happen but getting a head cold has brought my sewing to a stand still. I got home last Sunday afternoon and have been in bed or on the couch most of the last 6 days – ugh again! Ok, I’ll stop whining now 😉

I did FINALLY get back into my sewing room Friday night and put all my QuiltCon stuff away (I wish I had thought to take pictures of the fabric I got from giveaways and purchases, but alas nope). I set my sewing machine back in place and did some general tidying up.

I only needed to make 2 more doggie faces to complete the Dog Gone Cute quilt I’ve been working on so pulled the fabric and cut all the pieces…

I was out of energy at that point so I saved the sewing for Saturday…and ta-da, I got them all sewed up.

As a reminder, this is a commissioned quilt top and the coloring of dog faces are modeled after her 3 dogs. She’s been following me on Facebook so she’s seen the progress shots I’ve posted and she’s seemed very happy so far.

After finishing the last two blocks I pulled the rest of the background fabric to make sure I had enough for sashing & borders and OMG I didn’t have enough. I started panicking at this point – what if I couldn’t get more? how the heck was I going to finish this top? and so on. I spiraled out of control for a few minutes then I called Hobby Lobby to have them check the shelf…(cue angels singing) they still had plenty!!! I drove over late yesterday and bought more than I needed…cuz ya never know!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m still keeping up with my Bullet Journal and doing my S-A-V-E-R-S every morning…well, most of them. I haven’t been running at all, instead most days this week I completed a short low-impact cardio video on YouTube; better than nothing, right?

I enjoyed his style of writing and especially liked that he didn’t spout the same old ‘fake it til you make it’ stuff. He delves into some uncomfortable areas and provides real-life tips for dealing with fear and negative thinking. I borrowed this book from the library but I’m seriously thinking about buying my own copy.

That’s about it. I’m hoping I can kick this head cold without it turning into a sinus infection but…if I’m not feeling any better tomorrow I’ll be going to the doctor.

This last week was not as productive as I planned so there isn’t a whole lot to share today…but here’s what I’ve got:

1. Running

I did not get all my workouts in this week – I was planning to run C25K W7D2 on Thursday afternoon but my ‘day job’ got in the way and I couldn’t get off the phone. Since I knew I was running the Charlotte 4 miler on Saturday I did not try to make up that run on Friday.

Speaking of the Charlotte 4 miler, I had a really good run! I was 3 minutes faster than a few weeks ago when I ran 4 miles on Super Bowl morning, so…Yay!

2. Quilting

I made some progress on the Doggie commission quilt, again not as much as I wanted 😦 I made the ‘ears down version’ of the second dog…not exactly sure what breed he is and I didn’t match him exactly but hey, it’s a quilt – not a portrait! lol

I’ll also be planning and preparing for QuiltCon next week (squeeee!), my first ever quilting convention! I don’t have a lot of planned activities or classes so I’ll just be taking it all in and figuring it out as I go. Since I’m driving to Savannah, I’ll be taking my sewing machine with me and a few quilt tops that have been patiently waiting to be quilted. I figure I’ll have ample time each night to work on them – at least I’m hoping that’s how it goes!

3. Bullet Journal

I’m still using my Bullet Journal daily and I’m still getting things done – yay! I’ve decided to change up my weekly layout – I’ve been using a combined weekly/daily format but I find that it just doesn’t give me enough room to write. Some days I have a lot to write and others not so much, as such I’m going to try separating them and see how it goes. My Daily spread will look a lot like Kara Benz’s until I figure out if I like doing it that way.

We’ll see how this works out but next week might not be a fair gauge as I’ll be traveling and for me, all structure goes out the window when I travel :-p

That’s all for me right now, what goals & priorities are you working on…and how’s it going?

I blog about everyday struggles with food and weight loss. I also blog about motherhood, wifehood, & nursehood. This thing we call life is most certainly not easy and if you struggle like I do, I'm sure you can relate to what I write about... I'm on this journey right now and will be for quite some time so, why not make it a memoir along the way? In the end... it's ME vs FOOD! And well all the other 'hoods' I mentioned!